Richard Johnson
Mrs. Love Hilliard
Multicultural Lit & Film
28 April 2017
Creative Title
In the novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” many themes are shown throughout what Sherman Alexie is telling. The themes brought up within the story vary through a vast variety, such as racism, loss, poverty, dreams, hope, acceptance, etc. All the themes covered are life experiences that help guide you to the truth or pull you to be subjected to darkness.
So far in the text “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” I see a theme of identity developing. Junior’s sister, I assume, like all the other indians has been put down all her life. She's been through many struggles. One of which is her love for writing and reading romance novels, she feels outcasted. "Well, she wasn't shy about the idea of writing books. She was shy about the kind of books she wanted to write." Mr.P said. "She wanted to write romance novels.". “I laughed for real. A big
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laugh.”(Alexie 22) Junior said. Even her brother thinks it's strange, so what would everyone else think? This text evidence shows that Junior’s sister is a very self conscious person that cares what people think and say about her. But through the text she changed for the better. "If I was brave enough to go to Reardan, then she'd be brave enough to MARRY A FLATHEAD INDIAN AND MOVE TO MONTANA.”(Alexie 47) said Junior. This evidence shows that whatever she saw in Junior made her want to get married and moved away from the rez to pursue her dream becoming a romance novel writer. So far, I see the themes racism and poverty in the text. There was one piece of evidence that showed racism that stuck out to me in the text. The first talk Junior had with Penelope’s Father Earl was very harsh to say the least. "Kid, if you get my daughter pregnant, if you make some charcoal babies, I'm going to disown her. I'm going to kick her out of my house and you'll have to bring her home to your mommy and daddy. You hearing me straight, kid? This is all on you now."(Alexie 56) said Earl. This shows that Earl doesn’t care much for Indian’s. I mean “charcoal babies” and “disown her” what a guy. There were many examples of poverty in the text, mostly with people on the rez. There was a time when Junior didn't have enough money to pay for his food after the dance. “Man, don't sweat it. You should have said something earlier. I got you covered.” said Roger. “He opened his wallet and handed me forty bucks.”(Alexie 65). “And Roger, being of kind heart and generous pocket, and a little bit racist, drove me home that night.”(Alexie 67). This shows two things Junior is very poor and Roger is a very generous person and a great friend. Throughout this novel there have been many examples hopes, dreams, and acceptance.
The important of Hope is to help people realize how far they can go in life. The importance of Dreams are to help you achieve what you want in life. And the importance of acceptance is the help you move through your past to make a new. An example of hope was what Mr.P saw within Junior. "You can't give up. You won't give up. You threw that book in my face because somewhere inside you refuse to give up."(Alexie 25). Some evidence of dreams that are in this novel are when Junior wants to make more of his life. "I want to go to Reardan,"(Alexie 26). The best example I saw of acceptance is at the very end of this book. "I'm not nomadic," Rowdy said. "Hardly anybody on this rez is nomadic. Except for you. You're the nomadic one."(Alexie 116). "Just make sure you send me postcards, you asshole."(Alexie 116). In just these two statement both Junior and Rowdy accept that their lives will split apart for the better and the
worst. All the life experiences shown in the text “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” either lead you to happiness or despair. Many of the characters are changed by various of these themes. Mary was inspired to move away from the rez because Junior left to go to Reardan. Because Junior changed schools he finally found people who show their love for him which in turn gave Junior more hope for the world. If you feel the place you’re in is putting you down for the thing you love to do then try your hardest to better the situation to the best of your abilities.
Sherman Alexie grew up in Wellpinit, Washington as a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene tribal member (Sherman Alexie). He began his personal battle with substance abuse in 1985 during his freshman year at Jesuit Gonzaga University. The success of his first published work in 1990 incentivized Alexie to overcome his alcohol abuse. “In his short-story and poetry collections, Alexie illuminates the despair, poverty, and alcoholism that often shape the lives of Native Americans living on reservations” (Sherman Alexie). When developing his characters, Alexie often gives them characteristics of substance abuse, poverty and criminal behaviors in an effort to evoke sadness with his readers. Alexie utilizes other art forms, such as film, music, cartoons, and the print media, to bombard mainstream distortion of Indian culture and to redefine Indianness. “Both the term Indian and the stereotypical image are created through histories of misrepresentation—one is a simulated word without a tribal real and the other an i...
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
In conclusion, Sherman Alexie created a story to demonstrate the stereotypes people have created for Native Americans. The author is able to do this by creating characters that present both the negative and positive stereotypes that have been given to Native Americans. Alexie has a Native American background. By writing a short story that depicts the life of an Indian, the reader also gets a glimpse of the stereotypes encountered by Alexie. From this short story readers are able to learn the importance of having an identity while also seeing how stereotypes are used by many people. In the end of the story, both Victor and Thomas are able to have an understanding of each other as the can finally relate with each other through Victor's father.
Identity is 'how you view yourself and your life.'; (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is 'a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations.';(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As this happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. 'A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity?but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging.'; Social psychologists suggest that identity is closely related to our culture. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their identity as they are increasingly faced with a non-native society. I will prove that the play The Rez Sisters showed this loss of identity and loss of belonging. When a native person leaves the reservation to go and start a new life in a city they are forced to adapt to a lifestyle they are not accustomed to. They do not feel as though they fit in or belong to any particular culture. They are faced with extreme racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
Establishing an identity has been called one of the most important milestones of adolescent development (Ruffin, 2009). Additionally, a central part of identity development includes ethnic identity (ACT for Youth, 2002). While some teens search for cultural identity within a smaller community, others are trying to find their place in the majority culture. (Bucher and Hinton, 2010)The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian chronicles Junior’s journey to discovery of self. As with many developing teens, he finds himself spanning multiple identities and trying to figure out where he belongs. “Traveling between Reardan and Wellpinit, between the little white town and the reservation, I always felt like a stranger. I was half Indian in one place and half white in the other” (p.118). On the reservation, he was shunned for leaving to go to a white school. At Reardon, the only other Indian was the school mascot, leaving Junior to question his decision to attend school he felt he didn’t deserve. Teens grappling with bicultural identities can relate to Junior’s questions of belonging. Not only is Junior dealing with the struggle between white vs. Indian identities, but with smaller peer group identities as well. In Wellpinit, Junior is th...
It should be noted that gaining an identity in autobiographical writing is crucial “because literacy becomes a way of creating an identity where before there was none in the public discourse” (Finkelman, vol.2, 190). Although the identities of William and Ellen Craft may have been revealed partially before their narrative, their own words and experience have a much greater impact on the reader than if told by a secondary source.
Alexie, Sherman. The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. New York: Hachette Book Group, 2007. Print.
Racism, stereotypes, and white privilege are all concepts that affect all of us whether we believe it or not. If an adolescent of a minority can distinguish these concepts in his society then we all should be aware of them. These concepts are all clearly demonstrated in “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”. Anyone and everyone could clearly understand this novel but the intended audience is middle school to college level students. The novel’s goal is to help white students understand the effects of white privilege in an easier, more understandable way. Concepts are easier to understand when someone feels like they are connecting to someone they have things in common with, which is exactly what this novel does. I, for one, was always
Alexie begins the essay by telling the audience some background information about himself and his family. He tells of how they lived on an Indian Reservation and survived on “a combination of irregular paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.” (Page 1, para. 1) Right from the start, Alexie grabs the emotions of his audience. Alexie then goes on to talk of his father and how because of his love for his father, he developed a love for reading. “My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love books as well.” (Page 1, para. 2) He talks of how he taught himself to read and that because of the books he began to thirst for more knowledge. Alexie says that once he learned to read, he began to advance quickly in his schooling. However, because of his thirst for knowledge, he got into much trouble. “A smart Indian was a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike.” (Page 2, para. 6) This statement is one of the most powerful statements in the entire essay. The reason for this being that Alexie knows that trouble will come but he was not going to let it ...
Humor is something we see on a daily basis as humans; people use humor mostly to make other people laugh and smile, however in “The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, Sherman Alexie’s use of dark humor based on covering pain and making it bearable for his main character Junior. In this novel Sherman Alexie uses dark humor through the drawings of his main character and with literary techniques in order to make very serious depressing situations into bearable moments which everyone can understand.
What is Identity? Is it what you think of yourself? Is it how others see you? Or maybe it is the way you present yourself. Stories like “Ain’t I a Woman?” by Sojourner Truth , “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, and “Indigenous Identity: What is it, and Who Really has it?” by Hilary N. Weaver give us a few examples of identity based on each one of the authors viewpoints. Both “Ain’t I a Woman?” and “The Story of an Hour”, focus on how women were viewed and placed in society before and during the suffrage movement. “The Lottery” opens our eyes to the identity issue of blindly following tradition. The author of the story “Indigenous Identity: What is it, and Who Really has it?” tells us that identity is based on; race, gender, social status, and the knowledge of one’s heritage.
Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among others besides the people in her community. As she makes friends with other Indians in other communities she realizes the common bonds they share, even down to the most basic such as what they eat, which comforts her and allows her to empathize with them.
Friendship has magical powers it’s like a rainbow at the end of every storm.The story that was read is called The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian.This book is a novel by Sherman Alexie. In the book there were many characters, but the main ones are Arnold which they call Junior. Rowdy is Junior’s best friend that has problems throughout the book. Penelope is Junior’s love, you would say. The problems throughout the book is,one when Rowdy gets mad at Junior for switching schools. This school changes Junior in a good way. He is way happier, still has problems at home and everything, but way happier. There are many themes present in this book, The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian. One particular theme that is present throughout the story is that there is always hope for friendship.
Throughout the book the Reservation Blues there are many descriptions of how each character demonstrates faith and strength. Hence the fact that Sherman Alexie shows how each character goes through the struggle in their lives. Most of the characters from the Reservation Blues are Native Americans and go through many trials which they overcome shows how strong they are. Generally speaking, Native Americans have a rough way of living throughout the novel.